sleeping during audax.. your strategies?

[lvabd]

hi all

browsing the forum, I realized that the sleep topic has little attention (except from the thread https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=117534&hilit=sleep+die+early)

When it comes to Audax over 2 or more days, I cannot figure out what is the strategy of the majority. I find on blogs people who sleep in "audax hotels" (ditch, bus shelter...), but is that a small minority of nutters?

Solo sailors are known to sleep very little at a time, but often (relatively speaking). Wouldn't that be a good strategy for audax?

what is yours, and why?
what is the gear you carry for that?

thanks!

[ANTONISH]

I've only ridden 400k audaxes.
I generally found that a cup of coffee followed by 15mins sleep/doze got me going, (where depended on what was available)- sometimes I didn't sleep at all.
Eventually I decided that I got little pleasure from riding at night and stuck to 300k and 200k.
I wouldn't use the term "nutters" - cycling has always had its fair share of "characters"
Most really long distance audax events have some sort of hall where the rider can get some sleep.
Some faster riders will book a hotel as they will have the time in hand.
One of my acquaintances uses a bivvy bag - which I suppose could be classed as very lightweight camping.

I suspect that frequently riding long distances without much sleep over a number of years may have a similar effect on the body as shift work.

[pwa]

On a 600 I found 3 good hours of sleep was enough, with another hour or so built into that break to eat, wash and relax.

[Spinners]

I only did one season but didn't bother on the 400km, had 15 mins on the 600km* and 4.5 hours in total on PBP (84 hours but on the road for four nights). A few years before I rode my one and only 24-hour TT and didn't sleep on that but promptly fell asleep in the passenger's seat before we'd even left the car park!

* I had an hour-long drive back home on the 600km (Chepstow to Port Talbot) and needed to stop and walk around the service station twice as the dozies started after about 20 minutes of setting off for home. Dangerous to me and other road users and I would never do that again. Not my finest hour.

[loch eck steve]

Different things work for different people , I've found over the years on a 600k audex little and often works for me , I like to bash on for about the first 200 k , then rest/sleep every few hours , depending on time in hand / how i'm feeling etc . I've slept anywhere and everywhere ! generally about 20 minutes or so does the trick .

[Audax67]

Rule 1: do your sleeping OFF the bike, not on it.

Generally, I don't bother with lie-down sleep on a 400, but given a nice warm corner I'll snooze for half an hour or so.

On a 600 I usually reserve & pre-pay a hotel at around the 350-400k mark. A hot shower and 3 or 4 hours' kip work wonders, even more so if you shove in a good breakfast before starting. I've had good results from half a pizza saved from the night before & eaten cold.

On a 1000-1200 km, neglected sleep on the first half will come back at you like a train on the second half, so ideally I'd apply the same plan as for a 600. I say "ideally" because I've never managed to and have suffered accordingly.